📌 School Killings, Huge Africa Funding, More

Two 14-year-old students and two teachers were killed, and nine others hospitalized in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school.

The suspected gunman is in custody and was identified as a 14-year-old student of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, near Atlanta, where the shootings occurred Wednesday.

The hospitalized victims are expected to survive. The suspected gunman has been identified as Colt Gray, who will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.

Gray was questioned by law enforcement last year following “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” the FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said. There was no probable cause for arrest.

The sheriff’s department received the first reports of the shooting around 10:20 a.m. Law enforcement arrived shortly after. All schools in the district were placed in lockdown.

Officials say the gun used in Wednesday’s shooting was an AR-15-style rifle.

China President Xi Jinping pledged today to step up Chinese support to Africa with funding of nearly $51 billion.

Beijing desired to move away from funding big-ticket infrastructure and sell to developing economies its advanced, green technologies.

Xi told delegates from over 50 African nations at a major China-Africa summit in Beijing that China would carry out 30 infrastructure projects across the resource-rich continent and offer 360 billion yuan ($50.70 billion) in financial assistance.

Xi said 210 billion yuan of the financing pledge would be disbursed through credit lines and at least 70 billion in fresh investment by Chinese companies, with smaller amounts provided through military aid and other projects.

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit, held this year in the Chinese capital, chalks out a three-year program for China and every African state bar Eswatini, which retains ties to Taiwan.

Besides 30 infrastructure connectivity projects, Xi added, “China is ready to launch 30 clean energy projects in Africa,” offering to cooperate on nuclear technology and tackle a power deficit that has delayed industrialization efforts.

The US Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse by staff at California’s women’s prisons.

The inquiry references the case of Gregory Rodriguez, a former guard at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), who is heading to trial this week on nearly 100 sexual abuse charges.

Women have filed hundreds of lawsuits in the past two years alleging abuse by staff at CCWF, including claims of “inappropriate groping during searches, genital rubbing and forcible rape,” the department said.

Women who came forward last year about Rodriguez and abuse by others described a system in which they have struggled to access basic amenities like proper food and hygiene products.

They said they have been easily exploited by guards who offer resources or threaten to take them away. They said retaliation for speaking out was rampant, including being placed in solitary confinement after reporting abuse.

President Joe Biden will soon block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel, citing national security concerns, two sources said.

US Steel warned on Wednesday that a failure to conclude the $14.9 billion deal with Japan-based Nippon would put thousands of union jobs at risk and signaled it would close steel mills and potentially move its headquarters out of Pennsylvania.

Nippon Steel and US Steel said they did not receive any updates from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, adding they did not believe the acquisition posed national security risks.

“Japan is one of our most staunch allies,” US Steel said. “We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction ... closes.”

The acquisition faces opposition from Democrats and Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris said she wants US Steel to remain “American-owned and operated,” and presidential contender Donald Trump pledged to block the deal if elected.

Australia's Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found an AI model's summaries not as good as those generated by people.

ASIC's proof-of-concept study showed a now-outdated Llama2-70B model underperforming against human summarizers in critical areas like coherency and focus. The study was conducted with assistance from Amazon Web Services.

The evaluation involved summarizing public submissions highlighting mentions of ASIC, conflict of interest recommendations, and calls for more regulations, all with references to page numbers and "brief context" for explanation.

Findings indicated AI summaries often missed nuances, had inaccurate, irrelevant, or duplicated information, and could create more work due to fact-checking needs.

ASIC found that “adequate prompt engineering, carefully crafting the questions and tasks presented to the model, is crucial for optimal results.”

Despite limitations, ASIC remains optimistic about future advancements and their potential for improving performance and accuracy. Larger language models like ChatGPT-4o outscore Llama2-70B on generalized quality evaluations.

An armed man has been fatally shot by German police near the Nazi documentation center and Israeli consulate in Munich.

The man was hit during an exchange of fire with police. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said later that the suspect had died.

Police said a man had been spotted in the area carrying a long firearm, and five officers then exchanged fire with their service weapons. They said there were no indications of other suspects.

Munich's documentation center for the history of National Socialism opened nine years ago on the site of the former Nazi party's headquarters or "Brown House.” After the shooting, police raised security at Munich's main synagogue, local reports said.

The incident took place 52 years to the day after the 1972 attack on Israeli athletes by gunmen from Palestinian militant group Black September.

The Israeli consulate was closed at the time of the shooting because it was holding a memorial service for those who died in 1972. No one at the consulate was hurt.

Talented dogs, known as gifted word learners (GWL), can remember the names of their toys for at least two years.

Previous research shows GWL dogs can learn the names of hundreds of objects. But the latest study suggests they can remember the names of some toys for an extended period.

The hope is that the talented dogs could help scientists understand more about how animals other than humans retain their memories.

The study was led by Dr. Claudia Fugazza at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary. “Our findings cannot be generalized to other dogs because we only tested GWL dogs, individuals that show a special talent for acquiring object words.”

Five border collies, Gaia, Max, Whiskey, Squall, and Rico, participated in the study. Four out of five remembered 60-75% of toy names after two years.

The group averaged 44% correct choices, significantly above the chance level. The research is part of a project known as the Genius Dog Challenge.